Tusk, But Verify

The Oregon Zoo told voters it needed $125 million to make more room for elephants. It’s also making more elephants.

A TON OF CONTROVERSY: The Oregon Zoo plans an expansion of its elephant-breeding program. News of the zoo’s newest calf, Lily (above, with mother Rose-Tu) has been clouded by questions of the calf’s ownership. Four years after voters approved a $125 million bond, zoo officials finally plan to renovate the elephant exhibit (pictured in story below) starting next year. - IMAGE: Michael Durham

In August 2008, Oregon Zoo elephant Rose-Tu gave birth to
her first calf, Samudra—as if right on cue for the zoo to make a big
request of area taxpayers.

The zoo was seeking
voter approval of a $125 million bond to overhaul aging zoo buildings.
The baby Asian elephant starred in campaign commercials that promised a
yes vote would “keep the animals healthy and safe.”

Little Samudra helped soften voters’ hearts and open their wallets as they said yes to the bond.

Four years later, the
zoo has made little progress in using the money to make the elephants’
lives much better. Zoo officials promised a major expansion of the
elephants’ exhibit—and that hasn’t even broken ground.

Another key promise: The zoo would set aside money for a large offsite elephant reserve, where the animals could roam freely.

The zoo hasn’t yet
established a reserve. The Metro Council, which oversees the zoo, will
vote Dec. 18 whether to buy 240 acres in Clackamas County.

Meanwhile, zoo
officials have quietly made a dramatic change in strategy: Rather than
simply give the elephants a second home, the zoo wants to buy a second
herd and begin a new, aggressive breeding program, according to zoo
documents reviewed by WW.

The zoo now plans to
more than double its elephant population in the next decade—from eight
elephants to as many as 19—and keep a second herd at the offsite
reserve.

The Oregon Zoo is
doubling down on its elephant-breeding program even as other zoos from
Detroit to San Francisco cease to keep elephants at all, and controversy
grows about how the animals are kept in captivity.

But the decision also
comes as the zoo finds itself under growing financial pressure.
Attendance has dropped 6 percent since 2010.

And elephants—what
zoo officials in internal documents call “charismatic
mega-vertebrates”—drive ticket sales: The zoo set new attendance records
after the birth of Samudra, and crowds ballooned even more in 2009 as
the baby grew.

Scrutiny of the
captivity of elephants—and the Oregon Zoo’s history of breeding them—has
grown following an investigative story by The Seattle Times on Dec. 1-2 that traced a bleak history of elephant breeding in U.S. zoos.

Metro President Tom Hughes, who signed off on optioning reserve property in 2011, says he approves of doubling the herd.

“I wasn’t here when we designed the bond title,” Hughes tells WW. “It’s an evolution of our view of what the mission of the zoo is for our elephants.”

IMAGE: V. Kapoor

The 2008 zoo campaign leveraged affection for the
elephants to sell voters on the $125 million construction bond for a
wide range of improvements.

Zoo officials say
they will begin construction next year on a $53 million expansion of its
main elephant exhibit, from 1.5 acres to 6 acres.

The elephant reserve was also a big part of the pitch to voters.

Then-zoo director
Tony Vecchio talked about creating the reserve to give elephants more
space and freedom, trucking them to the zoo occasionally. Vecchio said
Packy would return to the zoo only for his birthday each April.

But after voters
approved the bond, zoo officials drew up a business plan that envisions
maintaining two separate groups of elephants for breeding.

“The model assumes a
robust reproductive rate with births occurring every four years per
reproductively viable female,” the plan reads. “To develop an unrelated
multigenerational matriarchal herd at the remote elephant center, the
zoo plans to acquire four unrelated females.”

The plan calls for
two bulls—Tusko and Samudra—to live on the reserve. Zoo officials say
the current female elephants would stay at the zoo, and not visit the
reserve. They won’t make any promises about Packy.

Zoo officials say the business plan that followed voter approval of the bond is a refinement of their elephant strategy.

“I would say it was
better defining the plan,” says Mike Keele, the zoo’s director of
elephant habitats. “It’s not about the amount of space; it’s about the
quality of space.”

That comes as news to
Vecchio, the former zoo director, who helped convince voters to OK the
bond measure but left before the zoo worked out its business plan.

“That is not one we
had talked about,” says Vecchio, now director of Jacksonville Zoo and
Gardens in Florida. “I wish I was still there to have these arguments.”

Estimated capital
costs for the reserve are $10.2 million—but the portion of the bond
budgeted for the project is $7.2 million. The breeding plan requires
another $1.5 million to acquire new female elephants.

Minutes from meetings
of the zoo bond oversight committee show zoo officials haven’t figured
out where they will get the estimated $800,000 annual operating costs
for the reserve once it’s built.

The measure never committed Metro to follow through.

“I knew the
bond-measure language was slightly fuzzy,” says Courtney Scott, a
Portland photographer and elephant activist. “But I was willing to take a
chance.”

“I don’t think it’s
enough,” Harmon says. “Of course we’d like to see it happen yesterday,
and elephants frolicking on 400 acres. If I was an elephant, this sure
is taking a long time.”

IMAGE: V. Kapoor

The Oregon Zoo created a public-relations nightmare around
the birth of its newest elephant, Lily, born Nov. 30, by failing to
disclose after the birth the calf is actually owned by an elephant
rental company accused of animal cruelty.

In
the past, zoo officials have been transparent about the ownership of
baby elephants. In the 1980s, for example, the zoo was open about the
fact a baby elephant born here was owned by—and destined for—the
Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus.

But following Lily’s birth last month, zoo officials said she was destined to grow up at the zoo’s new elephant exhibit.

It was The Seattle Times
that broke the news following Lily’s birth that the Oregon Zoo had a
breeding agreement with Have Trunk Will Travel, a California-based
elephant rental company that has been accused by animal-rights activists
of cruelty to its herd.

“We felt that it was known,” Smith now says. “Twenty-20 hindsight, you’d go back and make that more clear.”

(The Oregonian
had twice reported Have Trunk Will Travel’s ownership claim to the
calf. But the newspaper didn’t tell readers the company rents elephants
for movie productions, parades, corporate trade shows and weddings. Nor
did the newspaper tell readers about videos—easily found on the
Web—posted last year by animal-rights groups allegedly showing the
company’s trainers using electric prods on elephants.)

Have Trunk Will Travel owners have not returned WW’s calls for comment but have told The Oregonian they have a good record with animal-welfare regulators. They also say they want Lily to remain at the zoo.

The zoo is now trying
to buy the newborn elephant, but officials won’t comment on that or
talks to obtain Tusko, Lily’s father, owned by the company and loaned to
the zoo for breeding purposes.

It could be costly. The Seattle Times reported Have Trunk Will Travel in 2008 charged the Houston Zoo $500,000 for an adult cow and $100,000 for a calf.

Zoo director Smith won’t say how much the zoo is willing to pay now that she has already promised the baby will never leave.

"In the low usage areas, we found that our vehicles sit idle four times longer, ultimately affecting overall vehicle availability for the Portland membership base, as well as parking for the Portland community."

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